Posts tagged Tim Schafer
Review: Stacking (XBLA/PSN)
Feb 17th
Child Labor Laws, Matryoshka Dolls and Fart Jokes: A Review of Double Fine’s Stacking
Stacking is an adventure-puzzle game about the youngest child of a family of Industrial Revolution-era chimney sweeps fighting against the upper class. What separates this from other period pieces is every man, woman, child and beast is portrayed by a Russian stacking doll. How that design document was successfully pitched I may never know, but what resulted is one of the most original, entertaining and charming games I’ve ever played — possibly the best yet from developer Double Fine.
Demo Impressions: Brütal Legend
Sep 23rd
Tim Schafer (left) watches as Jack Black does something with a ridiculous expression on his face. Jack Black is a funny man.
What’s in a name? In the case of Brütal Legend, a whole hell of a lot.
- Jack Black stars as Eddie Riggs, the world’s best roadie who’s transported to a dimension of awesome metal-inspired brutality.
- Rob Halford, Lita Ford, Lemmy Kilmister, Ozzy Osbourne and…Tim Curry all have been tapped to lend their voice talents to the game. From what’s been shown so far, each looks to be perfectly at home in his or her element.
- Tim Schafer is the game’s creator; his previous credits include Full Throttle, Monkey Island, Grim Fandango and Psychonauts.
Schafer’s games all have an expected pedigree of quality when it comes to establishing setting, story and characters — in that regard, Brütal Legend won’t disappoint. But what about the game’s design? How well is it implemented?
After romping through the demo four times, there’s little doubt that the game itself does an admirable job of wrapping all this larger-than-life, metal-soaked goodness into a tasty little love burrito.
The Backlog: Stephen Colbert is Funny Edition
Jun 19th
No silly memes, no riffing on major world news events — this is just your typical, run-of-the-mill backlog. But isn’t that cause enough for celebration?
No? Hm. Well, here, check out Stephen Colbert’s exclusive preview of Microsoft’s Project Natal:
Read the rest of this entry »
Daily Recap: May 26, 2009
May 27th
The long Memorial Day weekend is now behind us (I know I have a bit more color on my skin to show for being in the beautiful Northwest weather!) and E3 is just over the horizon, with press conferences starting in just under a week. Whew. Time certainly flies, and the news mill has definitely been churning.
Unless this is the greatest prank Hideo Kojima has pulled in his life, it looks like the konami.jp teaser site that's been counting down for over a week is working toward a Metal Gear announcement next week at E3.
The big pieces of news have come from Kojima Productions and Rockstar, respectively. Starting with the Japanese developer, its teaser site – which has seen multiple countdown clocks on top of ever-changing imagery, all the while focused on a field during a thunderstorm – has now left little question as to what Metal Gear Solid creator Hideo Kojima will be working on next. Today, the image of a young Big Boss – replete with eye patch – joined the flashing numbers and letters that have been on the site for well over a week, seeming to imply that a new Metal Gear game of some sort is due to be announced soon.
The other piece of news related to the teaser site and Kojima’s next project comes from scans of a leaked copy of the newest issue of Japan’s Famitsu Magazine, the TIME of Japanese gaming. There’s a feature story with lots of self-editing by Kojima, and accompanied by another image from the countdown that hasn’t been seen yet: Raiden, circa MGS4. It’s good news for Metal Gear fans and, with a bit of elementary math, it looks like the timer will run to zero early next week.
Daily Recap: April 6, 2009
Apr 6th
Well, I guess it’s time for me to get a life.
In case you missed out, here are some of the more interesting developments in gaming today: Read the rest of this entry »